e looked pale but determined when he walked into the Delands'
drawing-room and found Marie there alone. She turned to greet him with
a little eager movement that was somehow comforting.

Here, at any rate, was some one who really cared for him and was glad
to see him. He took the hand she held out and, bending, kissed it.

She caught her breath on a little sound that was almost a sob, but she
checked it instantly and tried to laugh.

"This is almost like old times," she said.

"Quite like old times," Micky answered recklessly. "We've just turned
the pages back again and gone on where we left off, that's all."

He looked at her and tried to forget everything else. She was pretty
and dainty enough to satisfy the most exciting man, and she loved him!
To a man who is disappointed and unhappy there is great consolation in
the knowledge that to one person at least he counts before anything
else in the world.

She looked up at him, and impulsively he took a step towards her;
another moment and Micky would have sealed his fate, had not Mrs.
Deland pushed open the door and walked into the room.

It had not been any effort for her to forgive Micky for his cavalier
treatment of her daughter. For the last week she had been busy telling
every one that Marie and Micky had made up their quarrel--"entirely
Marie's fault it was, you know," and so on.

"You are going to give me half your dances at least," Micky said, when
they reached the Hoopers'. He took the card from Marie's hand and
filled in his own initials recklessly against the numbers.

She laughed tremulously; she was too happy to think of anything but
the present; she had got Micky again, and that was all she cared
about.

"Good-evening!" said a voice at her side, and, turning, she found
Raymond Ashton at her elbow.

Marie did not care particularly for Ashton. She greeted him rather
coldly.

"So you're back in town," she said. "And your wife?"

"Not here to-night," he answered. "She has a bad cold, so I persuaded
her to stay at home. May I have a dance?"

She gave him her card reluctantly. She would have liked to have
refused, but she thought Micky would be annoyed; she did not know that
he and this man were friends no longer.

She saw him glance at Micky's many initials on her card, saw the half
ironical smile he gave as he looked at her.

"Mellowes is back, then?" he said.

"Yes--he came with us to-night."

"Really! I thought----" he paused eloquently.